Liters and gallons, oh colonial one.

And stop moaning, if your entire country hadn't been using oil like it was going out of fasion for the past 50 years there might be enough left to keep the prices down :|

Kos man I love ya but it's not like everyone here just woke up one day and decided we were going to guzzle every bit of oil we could. We (or my family) personally conserve where we can, because it's getting to expensive.

Our gas usage is about 90% used to travel to and from work or shopping for groceries.

I think travel in this country is very different than over there. In the rural areas we have no mass transit and if you don't have a car you would be screwed.

It's OK Shieldywieldy, it's not your fault (it is, though). It's a cultural thing and it's beeing going on at least since the 50s.

Look at the diference in the top selling cars in the US vs UK for instance.

Top two in the US

1. Ford F-150, 23 mpg
2. Chevy Silverado, 20 mpg

Top two in the UK

1. Ford Fiesta, 51 mpg
2. Vauxhall Astra, 47 mpg

I've made all mpg figures in US Gallons, and the figures are for Highway Miles for the US cars and Extra Urban for UK (think they're basically the same thing?)

All four cars are made by American companies, so it's not like you don't have access to some crazy fuel efficiency tech that the rest of the world has.

And to be honest, the fact that you think it's BS that a finite resource has a relatively high price in the first place is symptomatic of a culture that is entirely geared towards consumption (not just of oil, but everything else that is and can be consumed by a country is underpinned by oil) - every aspect of US media, culture and politics seems to have that one goal (to an outsider at least).

Very good points. I think some of it is psychological. We want big ass cars and trucks. I remember a few years ago everyone wanted a Hummer. I think and wish they would enforce a minimum mpg of at lest 35.

I used to hear rumors of people inventing cars that would get over 100 mpg and the oil companies buying the ideas/patents just so they wouldn't get used.

But you're right, just about every bit of packaging contains some type of petroleum product. So it's not just at the pump it's everywhere!

It's not just packaging, it's /everything/. Like actually /everything/.

I still beleive that the real cause of the recession is/was oil prices, and as the world/west recovers and the demand goes back up the price rises again, and it'll come back and bight us in the ass again and again.

It's not to do with oil running out per se, but to do with the maximum rate at which we can get it out of the ground. There is very little spare capacity in the system (most of the OPEC capacity is unverified and probably made up, as member quotas are based on how much oil they /say/ they have in the ground)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubbert_peak_theory

And peope here still want big cars and to consume non stop, it's just that on a widescale cultural level it hasn't reached the same level of engrained 'entitlement' to consume that seems to exist in the US (I say this entirely based on chatting to people online and your countries media output - I've never been to the US, closest I've been is Canada which seems quite similar in a lot of ways :$).

That is changing here though, each new generation seems to think it's entitled to more and more. I think I'm getting old :(

True dat homie.

I used to feel entitled and then I too got old. It's funny how time does that to you.

Something certainly has to change, and I sure wish I had the answer to how we are going to get our dependence on oil reduced but I don't.

That's actually 91 RON and 97-ish RON. The figures are displayed in AKI, apparently.

What car do you drive? Is it FAST?